Tag: domains

Ed Stelmach not afraid to sue

Post Image The big political news today of course, is the New Hampshire primary (as I write this, CNN has projected McCain for the Republicans and shows Clinton and Obama in a tight race). But there’s a different political story I want to share with you, one that hits a little closer to home.

From the CBC:

[Alberta] Premier Ed Stelmach is ready to take legal action against a university student who bought the rights to the domain name edstelmach.ca.

On Dec. 3, [Dave] Cournoyer received a letter from Stelmach’s lawyers, accusing him of stealing the premier’s persona. It demands that the blogger hand over the domain and the advertising revenue generated from it to Stelmach or face litigation.

Legal squabbles over domain names happen all the time. Usually they are handled a little better however, especially when a politician is involved. I didn’t have a very high opinion of Stelmach before this little debacle, so how do you think I feel about him now? His first reaction is to sue?

I can’t say it any better than Cournoyer himself:

Though I am still surprised that the +150 staffed Public Affairs Bureau failed to complete the simple task of registering a $14.00 domain name, I am even more surprised that Premier Ed Stelmach’s first reaction in this situation was to threaten to sue an 24-year old blogger and debt ridden University of Alberta student.

Might as well play the student card if you can. Daveberta (as Cournoyer is known) says he is seeking advice from legal counsel.

Read: CBC News

Why the new .xxx domain is pointless

It was announced late yesterday that ICANN, the organization that looks after the Internet’s naming and such, has decided to go ahead and setup the .xxx top level domain for adult content websites. It is hoped that pornographic and other adult oriented websites will register sites using the new domain so that they can easily be filtered.

And that is exactly why the new domain is useless. Perhaps if pornographic websites were being forced to use the new domain, it would serve some purpose. Without a law or something forcing them, what is the benefit? There is none.

Child-safety advocate Donna Rice Hughes said .xxx won’t help people avoid online porn because sex sites will still be able to hold on to their old .com domain names. A spokeswoman for Playboy Enterprises Inc. said the adult entertainment company had no plans to move any of its Web sites to the new domain.

I suppose approval of the new domain can be seen as a first step towards the ultimate goal of segregating adult content from general websites. However, until the operators of adult sites, of which there are more than 1 million, are forced to use the new domain, it will remain ineffective.

Read: Reuters

Pope Benedict XVI

I am sure you’re aware that Joseph Ratzinger was selected to be the next pope – it’s all over the news. I think the message is clear: the Vatican did not want another long papacy. You can learn some interesting things about the new pope at Wikipedia. For example, he’s the eight German pope, and the first since 1523.

The name he selected is not all that surprising either. Indeed, Rogers Cadenhead registered a bunch of domain names ahead of the selection of the new pope, including BenedictXVI.com. Apparently the domain has received about 100 hits a minute since Ratzinger was selected. Why didn’t I think of that! I doubt it bothers the Vatican much however, considering they have their own top-level domain “.va” to use.